Approaches to integrate sustainable materials management into waste management planning and policy

Many solid waste policy makers are adopting sustainability practices following one of the three most commonly followed approaches: zero-waste, circular economy, and sustainable materials management (SMM). Although some communities have embraced these models, challenges remain to integrate these concepts into solid waste policy and planning. Several approaches for integrating SMM were demonstrated. The approaches centered on using SMM concepts to prioritize and strategically plan for more sustainable waste management and to create performance metrics to track solid waste management system progress. Waste information from five regions were compiled to assess current data adequacy; necessary data were in many cases limited. Findings showed that many of the regions will need to better track and report their individual materials generated and disposed of to more accurately apply SMM. Among the common outcomes of the SMM approaches illustrated was the need to better target specific materials in the waste stream for recovery, such as metal and paper products. Other findings included the need to more effectively promote and track waste reduction efforts given the dramatic beneficial outcomes when using an SMM-based performance metric, such as an energy use reduction goal.